Trump’s decision to fire the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (F.B.I.), James Comey, overnight has seen his administration scrambling to defend a litany of speeches and tweets which exhibited Trump’s support for Comey.

In the dismissal letter to Comey, Trump explained that he did not believe Comey effective enough to lead the F.B.I., and considered it “essential [to] find new leadership for the F.B.I. that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission.”

The water becomes incredibly murky when considering why Comey was fired. Many critics see the dismissal as evidence of the administration’s efforts to cover up their involvement with Russia pre-election. The New York Times highlighted the duplicity of the dismissal – “Mr Trump explained the firing by citing Mr Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, even though the president was widely seen to have benefited politically from that inquiry and had once praised Mr Comey for having “guts” in his pursuit of Mrs Clinton during the campaign.”